A Distributed Approach to Underwater Acoustic Communications

Christopher Bohner, S.M., 2003 Arthur Baggeroer, Advisor

A novel distributed underwater acoustic networking (UAN) protocol suitable for ad-hoc deployments of both stationary and mobil nodes dispersed across a relatively wide coverage area is presented. Nodes are dynamically clustered in a distributed manner based on the estimated position of one-hop neighbor nodes within a shallow water environment. The spatial dynamic cellular clustering scheme allows scalable communication resource allocation and channel reuse similar in design to land-based cellular architrectures, except devoid of the need for a centralized controlling infrastructure. Simulation results demonstrate that relatively high degrees of interference immunity, network connectivity, and network stability can be achieved despite the severe limitations of the underwater acoustic channel.